After being away all summer, and seeing 8 different national parks and monuments, we were also happy to have the chance to visit our close-to-home national park, Shenandoah. We had been missing "our park", so a couple weeks after settling back into life in Virginia, we headed out to Shenandoah National Park. We picked Jones Run Falls.
Kaia had honed her hiking skills over the summer, and she was ready to go!
Sierra had the guide book to tell us where to go, and some love for her little sister.
The trail was really lovely, green, like walking through a tunnel of trees. We had to stop several times for "rock climbing breaks" along the way. This is pretty normal for this crew. We like climbing on rocks just as much as we like hiking. I will not be surprised to see Sierra take up rock climbing one day.
Trees need love, too. Sierra said this tree was her friend, and needed a hug. She gave it a name, which I can no longer remember. Since Sierra hugged the tree, Kaia thought that she should do the same.
As we were approaching the waterfall, Kaia, who was now in the carrier, was falling asleep. We were trying to talk to her and ask her to look at things so she would stay awake. She loves waterfalls, and we didn't want her to miss it, but the sleepiness was just too much.
Sierra took off her shoes to cool her toes in the water.
The area was really beautiful, but it had been really dry for quite awhile, so the waterfall was really more of a water-trickle. I'd love to go back and see it sometime when there's a greater abundance of water.
Still, a great day, a successful hike, and a wonderful time with family in Shenandoah. Kaia even woke up to hike the last bit of the trail back to the car.
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